Material Handling

Across industries, fleet managers are making plans for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. They may be municipalities converting bus fleets to electric; distributors upgrading delivery fleets; or manufacturers switching trucks or material handling vehicles to run on electricity. These managers of industrial EV fleets may already be familiar with a decades-old electric vehicle technology: Forklifts.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard 1910.176(b) requires employers to store materials securely. “Storage of material shall not create a hazard,” the standard says. Complying with this standard can be a challenge for products that seem designed to roll away—as is the case with pipes of all sizes and materials.

When properly engineered, custom warehouse equipment promotes better ergonomics and enhances storage. Generally, that means more profitability and fewer bottlenecks for your operation.

Vertical material handling is always a challenge. Raising a loaded pallet to mezzanine-level with a forklift can be risky and time-consuming. Freight elevators require costly inspections and frequent, expensive maintenance. It’s not always possible—and it’s rarely safe—to have employees carry heavy loads up and down stairs.

There are many ways to move materials and equipment from one elevation to another: scissor lifts, lift trucks, spiral conveyors, and more. For many warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing plants, and other industrial facilities, however, vertical reciprocating conveyors (VRCs) provide the greatest combination of benefits. These include improved safety, higher throughput, and an overall boost in productivity.

In 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the injury rate in warehousing was significantly higher than the average for all industries: 4.8 injuries per 100 workers in warehousing and storage, versus 2.7 per 100 for all industries combined. In an effort to improve warehouse safety and bring down these injury rates, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced a five-year initiative beginning in August 2022. It’s called the Regional Emphasis Program (REP) for Warehousing Operation.

Academically, ergonomics is the study of work and how it interacts with the human body. As an applied science, ergonomics involves matching the work to the worker. The goal is to eliminate discomfort and injury on the job.

Looking for tips on growing your electrical wholesaling business in 2022 and beyond? Here are lessons from some of the year’s top sellers.

Proactive ergonomics improves workplace safety, but that’s just one of the benefits. It can also cut costs to help your business grow.

To keep up with global population growth, we’ll have to produce more food. Just how much more is debatable. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that we must increase food production by 70 percent by 2050 to feed the world’s population; the FAO later revised that figure to 60 percent. Meanwhile, an influential 2011 study by Tilman et al. estimated that we’d need to produce between 100 and 110 percent more food by 2050 to keep up with demand.